Awesome Media & Entertainment Ltd. (Awesome), the creative content company founded by writer-producer Jeff Norton has optioned the media rights to debut novel ‘The Last Wave’.
Written by award-winning, Bristol-based Gillian Best and published by House of Anansi Press, ‘The Last Wave’ won rave reviews in North America and has become a book club favourite, establishing its author as a bold new voice in literary fiction.
Awesome will immediately begin developing the book for television, with Norton and ex BBC Worldwide and ITV Studios executive Fraser Robinson attached as Executive Producers.
The deal marks Awesome’s first literary acquisition since taking investment from global content company Kew Media Group. With Kew’s backing, Awesome is ramping up its scripted development of book-based IP. Awesome previously optioned TV rights in Jay Gunn’s cult-hit graphic novel ‘Surface Tension’ and is co-developing that franchise with Wall to Wall Television (part of Warner Bros. UK).
Speaking on the association, Executive Producer Jeff Norton said, “Awesome is an author-founded company and we want to be the home for the world’s most creative storytellers. Gillian Best’s novel is heartbreaking yet ultimately heart-warming tale that is at once a feminist story, a novel about a marriage and a narrative about one woman’s self-empowerment and liberation from domestic life.”
‘The Last Wave’, set in Dover, UK, is an inter-generational saga that revolves around the protagonist Martha, (a woman who has swum the English Channel ten times), and the complex relationships she has with her husband, her children, and her close friends. The one constant in Martha’s life is the sea, which provides an allegorical backdrop to three generations of her family.
Founded in 2010, Awesome began as the intellectual property vehicle for author Jeff Norton’s novels and creations, publishing over 25 novels with major publishers, and is now developing television adaptations of its books with best-in-class production partners and originating high-end drama.
